Thursday 13 October 2011

Mists and mellow fruitfulness at Hergest Croft

Acer pseudosieboldianum: the only maple showing really good colour at present.

A shaft of sunshine (for about two minutes) over Hergest Croft.
I've spent the day at Hergest Croft, near Kington at the western extremity of Herefordshire, as the guest of Lawrence and Elizabeth Banks, principally to look at how specimens mentioned in New Trees have developed. Hergest Croft has one of the finest private arboreta in the country and is full of good trees acquired and planted by successive generations of the Banks family over the past 160 years. In consequence it is always a pleasure and education to go round the grounds; unfortunately it was another rather gloomy day, but at least it had stopped raining.

It seems as if it is not going to be a very good autumn for leaf colour, but berries and fruits are abundant and many are looking good now, as seen here. Preparations were under way for the annual Plant Fair and 'Celebration of Apples' at the weekend, which should be an event well-worth attending.

A very pretty small-fruited Cornus kousa (BSWJ 1230)

Sorbus pseudohupehensis

"Sorbus" megalocarpa - the generic status of these Asian entire-leaved species is far from clear.

Raindrops on Tropaeolum speciosum.

2 comments:

  1. I'm very interested in seeing the beautiful red on your Acer pseudosieboldianum. Mine was a brilliant yellow this year with patches of the red on each leaf. Interesting to compare the two! Larry

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  2. Hi John,

    Red always attracts me before any other color and I am therefore partial to red floras or faunas and, of course, all the other hues which include pink, burgundy, magenta, orange and even purple.

    I can’t stop staring at your first photo of the Acer pseudosieboldianum. I’ve got one of these Korean beauties in my side yard but its leaves are pale orange rather than the deep red your are.

    Your Sorbus pseudohupehensis is lovely, I managed to kill mine 2 seasons ago.

    Hanna

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